


Full Metal High

by storyRETRO (storyranger)



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Sky High (2005), Torchwood
Genre: ALPHONSE GETS HIS BODY BACK, Alternate Universe - High School, Gen, High School, Interdimensional Rift, Returning Home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29736003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyranger/pseuds/storyRETRO
Summary: When an interdimensional rift tears the Elric Brothers from Amestria and dumps them in Maxville, USA,  they are forced to adapt and overcome until they can find a way back home.Unfortunately, in this case "adaptation" means "going to high school". Hey, at least their new friends have some interesting powers.
Relationships: Will Stronghold/Layla Williams
Kudos: 5





	1. The Time Rift

**Author's Note:**

> The original story was published on ff dot net before crossovers were an option. Since I had to pick one fandom, I filed it under Sky High because the action of the story took place in that universe, and included a cringey summary of the Elric Brothers. If you’re reading this here on AO3, I’ll assume you are familiar with both properties.

Edward Elric stared up at the sky and blinked. He didn’t know where he was or how he got there. All he knew was that one minute, he had been standing with his brother in the middle of their hotel room in Resembool, and the next, here he was, standing in what appeared to be someone’s front lawn.

He looked around and spotted something that he thought he might never see again. He gasped.

“Al?!” he said, dumbfounded.

“Brother?” said Alphonse, looking down at himself in disbelief. For the first time in six years, Al was not staring at a suit of armour. He was looking at his own body.

Suddenly, Ed began to curse. Al patiently waited until the torrent subsided before he asked, “What’s wrong?” Ed glared at him and replied, “I’m two years older than you, you’ve got your normal body back, and you’re still taller than me!”

And then, despite the strange and confusing situation, they both burst out laughing.

* * *

Will woke at the first ring of his alarm clock. He sighed and got out of bed, bracing himself for another boring summer day. With all his friends gone on vacation, Will was having a very hard time finding things to do.  
He walked downstairs into the kitchen, yawned, and looked out the window. That’s when he noticed the two very lost-looking teens standing on his front lawn. With his parent’s gone for the day, Will didn’t quite know what to do, but he decided it looked like the two boys could use some help. So, without pausing to think much about what he might be getting himself into, he strode out onto his lawn to greet them.

* * *

After the initial shock had worn off, Ed and Al tried to decide what to do next. “Ed,” began Al, cautiously.

“Mmm?” said Ed.

“Well, um, there’s a kid walking towards us, and he’s walking pretty fast, and I just wanted to know how we’re going to explain why we’re standing on his lawn.” Al said this all in one breath.

“What?!” exclaimed Ed, turning around and spotting the boy for the first time. He had nearly reached them, and they could see he was a boy of about their age. He was dressed in a blue and red t-shirt and had dark brown hair.

“Um, big brother?”

“Okay…just let me do the talking, alright?”

The boy had reached them now. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Will Stronghold. You two looked a bit lost, so I thought you could probably use a hand.”

Ed shook Will’s hand and introduced them. “I’m Edward Elric,” he informed him, “and this is my brother, Alphonse.”

“Most people call me Al.”

“Pleased to meet you Al,” said Will, shaking hands with him. “So, are you from around here?”

“Ah, no,” replied Ed, “we’re from…out of town.”

“Well, if you need a place to stay, there’s plenty of room in our house.”

“That would be great,” said Al quickly, before Ed had time to object.

“Come on inside, then," Will grinned, waving his hand towards his front door.

* * *

“Can I get you anything?” asked Will, as he led them into his kitchen. “Water, juice, soda?”

“No thanks,” said Ed, looking around at the spacious room, with it’s gleaming counte rtops and strange, blinking appliances.

“I’ll have some water, please,” answered Al, sitting down. Will grabbed a bottle of water and a soda from the fridge and sat down across from him. No one said anything for a long time.

After a while, Al broke the silence. “At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid,” he said, “where exactly are we?”

“You’re in Maxville,” replied Will, with a certain amount of pride. “Maxville, USA.”

“Oh,” said Al, trying to remember if he knew where that was.

Will gave him a strange look and asked, “where are you from?”

“Amestria,” Ed replied, figuring it was better to tell the truth and face the questions, then to try and make up a credible lie.

“Come again?” said Will, trying to indicate politely that he had no clue in hell where they were talking about.

“Amestria. It’s on the border with Ishval?” Al supplied, trying to be helpful. Will shot him a quizzical look, but before he could as any more questions, the phone rang. Will grabbed the handheld off its receiver and went into the den to take the call, leaving Ed and Al alone at the kitchen table. Ed breathed a sign of relief.

“Saved by the bell.”

* * *

“Hello?”

“Will, dear, is that you?” asked Josie Stronghold, from the other end of the line.

“Yes, Mom, who else would it be? Listen, would it be okay if I had a few people over tonight? ‘Cause I met these two guys and they’re new here and seem kinda lost. So I was thinking maybe they could stay here for a bit.”

“Of course! Who are they? Where are they from?”

“Well, their names are Edward and Alphonse Elric, and they said they’re from Amestria, bordering Ishval.”

“Oh, sweetheart, Austria is nowhere near Istanbul.”

“No, mom, _Amestria_.”

“Never heard of it.”

“That’s what I thought.” He lowers his voice before he continues, “Mom, their clothes, their hair... I mean, it’s not like I don’t like them, but they’re definitely not from around hear.”

“And so you’re not quite sure what to do with them.”

Will smiled. He sometimes wondered if his mom was a telepath as well as a flyer. “Exactly.”

“Well, there’s no harm in making them feel at home! Your father just closed the deal on the Blackworth’s estate, so we’ll be home soon. In the meantime, show our guests around the house, and don’t push them if you ask a question and they don’t want to answer.”

“Alright. Bye Mom.” Will hung up, and walked back into the kitchen.

“Want to see the house?”

* * *

“And this is the den. The TV’s for everyone, so feel free to watch whatev-” Will’s voice was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing.

“Son, we’re home!” Steve Stronghold’s voice echoed through the house.

“Coming, Dad!” Will and his new friends went into the foyer to greet his parents.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stronghold. Nice to meet you. I’m Al, and this is my brother, Ed.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Al. Call me Josie. This is my husband, Steve, and of course you’ve already met our son.”

“Any friend of Will’s is welcome here,” Steve added in his booming voice.

Al then offered to help Josie with dinner, and Ed and Will went back into the den.

“So, wanna watch anything in particular?” Will asked.

“On the TV? Normally I’ll just watch sports but if there’s a show you like that’s on now...”

“Oh, no. Whatever you’d watch is fine,” replied Ed, trying his hardest to pretend he knew exactly what Will was talking about.

Will grabbed the remote off the table and hit the power. Immediately, the screen of the little black box came to life. Ed watched in fascination as miniature people appeared onscreen and began to yell at each other. It was, as Josie would later tell him, soap opera, but at that moment he was more interested in how this “TV” worked then what the people on it were doing.

“Hang in a sec, I think the Premier League should be on right now.” Will pressed a different button, and the yelling pair disappeared, replaced by smaller people running around a field after a white and black ball, cheered on by a screaming crowd. The people ran around for a few moments before the noise of the crowd was abruptly cut off by an announcer in a smart brown suit. A red box in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen announced that this was BBC: Sport. A matching red bar ran along the bottom of the screen, with large white lettering scrolling past proclaiming “Breaking News from the BBC”

“We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news from Wales. Researchers from across the UK and Europe flocked to Cardiff today to witness what some are calling ‘a wrinkle in time’.” A picture flashed onscreen, showing what appeared to be a great shimmering wall in the middle of a city street. The announcer continued, “scientists have not yet determined what is causing this phenomenon, but residents have report seeing several objects emerging from it. We go now to our on-the-ground correspondent Tanya Evans for more details. Tanya?”

A woman appeared onscreen. Behind her was the same picture they’d shown beforehand. No, wait. This was the real thing. Will put the remote down and shifted forwards in his seat, riveted. Ed, over the shock of the magical picture box, was equally compelled by the reporter’s story.

“Well, Nigel, you can see behind me this ‘wall’ that has everyone so baffled. Now, residents are reporting seeing things emerge from this mysterious barrier, and some have even claimed that what they saw were actual humanoid creatures, who appeared in the air just in front of the wall and then quickly disappeared. While they were not ruling out the possibility that these eyewitness reports are accurate, researchers were quick to point out that they were highly unlikely. They may have changed their mind, however, after the appearance just moments ago of a full suit of armour seemingly out of thin air, that fell to the ground and through one of the researchers’ car windshields. No one was hurt in the incident, but a spokesman at the scene told us that this armour is unlike any culture they’re familiar with, and are calling this a breakthrough piece of evidence in their investigations. Back to you, Nigel.”

The woman disappeared, replaced with the man in the suit on the right half of the screen; the left was now occupied by a picture of a familiar suit of armour, framed in broken glass. Ed’s face turned pale.

“Thank you Tanya. Well, this just in: a confidential source has now told the BBC that this phenomenon could be a ‘time rift’, and the covert intelligence agency Torchwood has been called in to investigate. When asked for comment, the British Home Secretary instead reaffirmed the government’s official position that Torchwood does not exist. However, several sources within the Prime Minister’s office have confirmed otherwise.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Al exclaimed, walking in with a pitcher of water in hand. Neither Will nor Ed looked away from the screen.

“For more on this story, you can follow me back over to BBC News, or tune in to BBC One at one. We now return you to Manchester vs. Liverpool.”

Al looked back and forth between the two other boys, then finally glanced at the glowing box they seemed so concerned with. The crowd noises picked back up again immediately, but the image of the armour lingered for several seconds as, an ocean away, an overworked technician scrambled to change the visuals back to the football game.

Ed and Will were suddenly jolted out of their trance by the sound of glass smashing against hardwood flooring. Al stayed rooted to the spot as if he hadn’t noticed the pitcher slip out of his hand. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost.

“Oh my god,” Al finally breathed out, completely shaken by the sight of that same armour that had been his prison for six long years.

* * *

Josie didn’t need superhearing to detect the sound of glass breaking; Mom-instincts were sufficient for the task. She rushed into the den and issued the standard command of all mothers in such a situation: “DON’T TOUCH THE GLASS!”

Her sudden appearance made Al snap back to reality. He stared down at the mess of water and glass shards at his feet and began apologizing profusely.

“I am so sorry,” he babbled, “it just sorta... slipped out of my hands. I can fix it!”

Then, without thinking, he bent down, clapped his hands together, and touched the broken shards of the pitcher. Immediately they sprang up and began to meld together, fitting themselves in with each other and reforming the jug.

Seconds later there it stood, filled to the brim with water, looking for all the world like it had just been bought yesterday,

Will was the first to break the silence that followed. “That was freakin’ amazing, man!” he exclaimed. “I had no idea you had powers!”

Josie having recovered sufficiently to speak again, turned to Ed and asked, “do you have them too, or is it just your brother?”

Ed and Al looked at each other, and back at Josie, confused.

“Well, in any case, I think you boys know more then you’re letting on,” she added. “I think you two owe us an explanation.”

“What do you mean, powers?” Ed asked, a note of suspicion in his voice.

Josie looked at him strangely, then comprehension dawned on her face. “Let’s discuss this over dinner, shall we? I’m sure we’ll all be able to think more clearly with some food inside us.”

Josie managed to herd to group of very confused boys into the dining room. Once everyone was seated and had begun to eat, she fixed Edward with a look that clearly communicated she would accept nothing but the truth, and said calmly, “Now, for starters, you can tell me about where you came from and how you got here.”

Ed took a deep breath. “As you probably already guess, ma’am, we’re not from around here. We’re not from ‘USA’, whatever that is. In fact, based on what we just saw on your magic news device downstairs, I’m not even sure we’re from this world.”

“And where else would you be from?” asked Steve, who had been upstairs working out during the pitcher incident, and was always a little slower on the uptake then his wife.

“Start with where you’re from, and then we can move on to how you got here,” suggested Will, encouragingly.

Ed looked around the table, and realized there was nothing to be gained by attempting to conceal the truth. Besides, he somehow got the impression that these strangely kind people would believe him.

“Amestria. We’re from Amestria. We were with our friend Winery when... when we ended up here. I had just finished an assignment. I work for the Amestrian military, and we were taking a break before I headed back to Central City. Oh hell. They’ve probably listed me as AWOL by now-”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up a minute,” interrupted Steve, “you work for the military? How old are you, fourteen?”

“Sixteen,” replied Ed through gritted teeth. “I’m sixteen. I’m a state alchemist.”

“And that thing Al did on the jug, was that what you call alchemy?” asked Will.

“Yeah.”

“And this... alchemy,” Josie asks, “what else can you do with it?”

“Alchemy is the transmutation of matter into different forms. Basically, taking a thing and making it something else.”

“And you can do it to anything?”

“Not exactly,” Al broke in. “There are rules. Most aren’t super important but the first law of alchemy is the Law of Equivalent Exchange. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. Like... a sacrifice, of sorts.”

“So, when you fixed the jug...”

“I sacrificed the broken pieces, yeah.”

“And this alchemy is common where you come from?” Steve asked.

“Well, normal alchemy is.”

“Normal?”

“Well, most alchemists have to use a transmutation circle and perform a specific ritual. Al and I, though, we just have to put our hands together and touch the materials we want to transmute. That’s one of the reasons the military wanted me. I have an edge in combat.”

“So you two do have powers!” Will exclaimed.

“I mean, maybe if someone explained what you all mean by ‘powers’, I could answer that,” replies Ed, frustrated.

“He means superpowers, dear. You see, Steve and I might work as realtors during the week, but that’s just our cover job. We’re superheros.” Noting the confused expressions on their faces, she added, “It’s quite common here in Maxville, you know. Superheros save the day all the time. Steve, here, for example, he has super strength and I can fly at supersonic speed; we’re known to the public as ‘The Commander’ and ‘Jetstream’. Will inherited both our talents and goes to a school especially for the children of superheros like us, where they learn to control their powers and train to become the next generation of heroes.”

“And these... superheros, as you call them. Do they have any other powers?” asked Al, tentatively.

“Oh, there’s all different kinds, really,” said Will, excited to be able to add something useful to the conversation. “Let’s see, my girlfriend Layla can control plants, and my best friend Warren is a pyro, Zack can glow, Ethan melts-”

“Melts?”

“Yeah, melts. Like a popsicle.” (This explanation would have been more helpful if popsicles existed in Amestria, but neither brother wanted to interrupt their new friend again.) “That’s Warren’s nickname for him, actually. The Human Popsicle. Other kids in my class can stretch, run faster then the speed of sound, freeze stuff, clone themselves, and then there was this techno-path upperclassman called Gwen Grayson who seemed really cool at first until she tried to take over the school last year-”

“Techno-path?”

“She could manipulate technology with her mind. She helped me in Mad Science class but then during the homecoming dance we found out she was really the supervillian Royal Pain and she locked everyone in the gym and tried to turn everyone into babies as revenge. Wait, I’m going off topic. Sorry.”

“You have to finish the story now!” cries Al, desperate to know the resolution to Will’s adventure even if he’s pretty confused about the exact chain of events.

“Oh, okay. So my friends and I managed to escape the gym, and we defeated Royal Pain and her gang. And then Mr. Medulla managed to reverse the baby-ray and change everyone back who’d been de-aged.”

“Woah. That’s pretty impressive for school kids,” mused Ed, who generally thought of school as a thing most kids abandoned before puberty.

“That’s what I thought,” Steve agreed, nodding, “Especially since most of them were only sidekicks-Ow! Josie, that hurt!”

Josie turned to the boys with a wide smile and Steve glared down at his throbbing shin. “Steve’s still stuck in a bit of a conservative frame of mind when it comes to the power groups. Isn’t that right, Steve?”

Steve decided a change of subject was in order, pronto.

“So, Ed, you mentioned something on the news made you think you weren’t from the world. Now, I don’t know what other world you could possible think you came from, but why don’t you tell us a bit more about your theory.”

“Uh, sure, I guess. It might sound a little far-fetched though. Will and I were watching the... TV, is that what you called it? Anyways there was this news broadcaster talking about a time-rift in someplace called Cardiff, and these people who lived there had said they saw things flying out of it and then disappearing. People, maybe. And I wouldn’t have thought this involved us except for the fact that researchers at the scene found my brother’s armour at the foot of this rift thing.”

Ed said all of this in one breath, before he could convince himself the idea was to crazy to share. He tried to judge the audience’s reactions; Steve looked shocked, Josie looked thoughtful, and Will looked downright gleeful.

“You know,” said Josie, “that sounds so crazy it just might be true.”

“So what now?” asked Al, worried.

“Well, right now we are all going to enjoy the cookies I had time to bake thanks to your excellent kitchen help, Al. Then Will is going to set you two up in the guest room, and we’ll all get a good night’s sleep. In the morning, Steve and I can go to the bureau and see what we can find out about what’s going on in... sorry, Cardiff, right? We’ll decide what to do once we have as much information as possible. Does that sound okay to you two?”

Ed and Al looked at each other, then nodded.

“Wonderful.” The timer on the oven went off with a cheery _‘ding!’_ , signalling that the time for discussion was over and the time for sugar was here. Josie got up and bustled around in the kitchen for several minutes before returning to set down a tray of steaming cookies on the table.

“Double chocolate caramel!” she exclaimed proudly. “Eat up!”

They spent a pleasant few hours devouring far too many cookies, and listening to stories of The Commander, Jetstream, and many others. By the end of the evening the Elric Brothers had a fairly comprehensive (and even mostly correct!) idea of what superpowers were, and a basic understanding of the most high-profile heroes and villains of Maxville. Ed and Al were able to explain a little bit more about alchemy, which the Strongholds thought sounded like magic but with more rules.

“All science was thought to be magic at one point, though,” Josie mused. “They thought those of us with powers were witches, at one point. It’s not that strange, when you look at it that way.”

* * *

At around midnight, Josie packed them all off to bed. When they were finally alone in the guest bedroom they would share for the forseeable future, Al asked Ed, “They’re nice people, aren’t then?”

Ed nodded. “That they are, Al. That they are.”

Al yawned and lay back against the pillows. “Well, goodnight Ed.

“Night, Al.”

The house was quiet and still. In the silence, Ed could make out a faint sound from the other bed.

Snoring.

Al was  _asleep_ . He hadn’t been able to do that for six years.

Ed looked across the room and smiled. No matter where they were, it was good to have his brother back.


	2. First Day Jitters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay let's be real, if I was writing this now instead of ten years ago Ed and Warren would fall in love by second period.

Beep! Beep! Beep!  
“Uhughhhh......” Ed groaned miserably, rolling over and clamping a pillow over his ears. He was no longer having to eat and sleep for the both of them, but he still wasn’t a morning person, and likely never would be.  
“Kids, time to get up! You’re going to be late!” Josie trilled cheerfully from the kitchen.  
Ed groaned again. “Why did we agree to this?”  
Al laughed and shook his head at his brother. He was already dressed and ready to leave.  
“It’s the safest place for us to be while the Strongholds are at work until-”  
“Until the Bureau figures out what happened and how we got here. Yeah, yeah. But did it have to mean going back to school?”  
“If we’re stuck here, we may as well learn something. It’s not like you can just go out and get another job with the military; apparently you have to be 18 to join here. It’s good to have options, in case...”  
“We’re going to get home one day, Al,” Ed declared firmly. “Stop worrying about it.”  
“Well, in any case, I think school’s going to be fun,” said Al, picking up his new backpack and leaping down the stairs.  
It has been an eventful week, Ed reflected, to say the least. Josie had met with some high ups at this group they called the Bureau, and they had decided it was almost certain the brothers had come through the rift, and almost equally certain they had not come alone. Torchwood, whoever that was, had found a wrench and some other interesting articles near the armour found at the scene, and concluded that the rift was likely inter-dimensional instead of temporal, whatever that meant.  
No one at The Bureau quite knew what to do with the Elrics; they couldn’t just put them on a plane to Cardiff and hope for the best, there were procedures and policies to be followed. Also, neither the Bureau nor Torchwood officially existed, so collaboration between the two organizations was proving trickier then anticipated. It was Josie who pointed out that Sky High was one of the safest places in America, and while they didn’t technically have super-powers, the brothers’ ritual-free alchemy was close enough to pass as them until something else could be done. Finally, after much hemming and hawing and a few strongly worded emails, it was agreed that Al would be registered at Sky High as a sophomore with Will, and Ed as a junior with Will’s friend Warren.  
This, of course, necessitated the Elric’s participation in the great American tradition of back-to-school shopping. The brothers had one small bag with them when they came though the rift, which was eventually found by the Cardiff constabulary and helpfully air-mailed to them; it would arrive a few weeks into the fall semester. As it had only contained a change of clothes each and two sets of Ed’s uniform robes, it wouldn’t have helped all that much regardless. They were in dire need of clothing and supplies, which the agency agreed to reimburse the Strongholds for from its discretionary fund. Josie thought this would be a good opportunity for the boys to meet some of their soon-to-be classmates, and thus Saturday found them at the Maxville Mall.  
Will introduced them to his girlfriend, Layla, and his friends, Zack, Ethan, Magenta, and Warren. He’d explained the situation to his friends as best he could beforehand; they had lots of questions but agreed to try and not overwhelm the brothers during their first meeting.  
Ed took one look at Warren’s all black ensemble and demanded to be taken to whichever stores Warren patronized. Al, Will, and Magenta couldn’t help bursting into laughter at this, and Warren looked a little embarrassed but mumbled something about “Hot Topic” and “Walmart”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all she wrote, folks. I was surprised when I found this in a folder at my parent's house; mostly, I was surprised I actually had 4 chapters written out longhand that I never got around to typing and posting back in 2007. I don't expect I'll come back to this and finish it, but you never know, right? Anyways, tell me in the comments below where you think I might have been going with this because I sure as hell can't remember!


End file.
